The Burning Of Camelot
by Enhas
Summary: Camelot is destroyed and Morgana dead, and Morgause discovers the horrifying reason of how and why it happened.  AU from The Crystal Cave.


Note: Has spoilers up to the Series 3 episode _The Crystal Cave_. Don't expect a happy ending here.

* * *

Camelot was no more, and Uther Pendragon was dead. That should have been wondrous news for Morgause and a cause for celebration, if only her sister had not been among the victims. Except for a small part of the lower town, everything else was _gone_... reduced to rubble and smoldering ruins, with charred corpses everywhere. Few had survived, and most of them were so badly burned or had missing limbs that she had quickly put them out of their misery. The smell of roasted flesh was everywhere.

Just _what_ had happened there?

With nobody to stop her, she had recovered two very important things from what was left of the castle: The bracelet which she had given to her sister as a gift, for it was all that now remained of her, and the Crystal of Neahtid. It was an important, powerful artifact that she and many others of her kind had always desired to possess, but it was a bittersweet victory. Her sister was gone, consumed like the rest of the people by whatever terrible inferno that had swept over the city. She knew that it _had_ to have been a magical fire to have done so much damage so quickly, but who had done it?

The Crystal would tell her all, and Morgause would make whoever was responsible regret that he or she had ever been born. Morgana was _dead_.

Only five people remained from what was once a thriving city, one of which was a guard, that were not mortally injured and had quickly and quietly left after Morgause's mercy killings, in fear of provoking her. Seeing as none of them could possibly be magical, she ignored them and looked around for whatever else could be of value. In one area, she discovered a staff and book that had not burned up with everything else, and decided to take them with her. They must have been enchanted in some way in order to have survived, and after opening the book she immediately noticed that it was in fact a _spell-book_.

Morgana did not have either of those items, as far as she knew, so there had been another sorcerer or sorceress secretly practicing magic in Camelot. At any rate, the staff and book were a small bonus and would be carefully examined by her later on, once she had found out what _happened_.

Morgause was standing alone in a burnt-out shell of what had been the throne room, during a clear star-lit night. The time and conditions were perfect to use the Crystal, which she had placed on top of part of a ruined wall. She knew that seeing into the future was quite difficult, and it was not a talent she possessed unlike her sister. The present was easier, though at times clouded and it was hard to focus on a certain person or location without much practice.

The past, however, was very simple to view by one who had the skill and power to do so, for events that had already happened were _set_ in time itself.

She thought only of her sister, Morgana, as she gazed deeply into the Crystal.

Moments later, she fell to her knees and wept loudly, smashing her fists into the ash-filled ground.

* * *

Morgana had awoken from Merlin's healing of her with only one word in her thoughts: _Burn_.

The Dragon had told the young warlock that his actions in saving her life would have consequences, and indeed they immediately did and quite severely. She should have rightly died and have been mourned and buried, for it was supposed to have been her time.

Death does **not** like being cheated, and Morgana had come back _wrong_. Everything that had once been her was gone, and consumed by that one word endlessly repeating itself over and over in her head. She no longer knew who she was or anything else at all, except for that one word.

_Burn, burn, burn._

Death would make Merlin pay for defying it, especially since it was not his first offense. Gaius had lived beyond his allotted number of days as well due to his influence, but no longer. Merlin, or Emrys as some called him, was an abomination that had overstepped his bounds far too often and could no longer be overlooked. Kilgharrah had warned Merlin against saving Morgana, but could not ignore a Dragonlord's order. As soon as Merlin had left his presence, he had seen glimpses of a new, dark future and _roared_ in complete agony at the failure of Arthur and Merlin's destiny.

The Great Dragon had then flown away to parts unknown, and was never seen by mortal eyes again.

Nobody could stand against Morgana's unleashed, nightmarish power. She had an affinity for fire (which was among the first signs of her magic that had manifested, in the form of lighting candles in her chambers) and had been taught by Morgause to control it, but control was something she no longer had. Each and every person Morgana came across had only time to hear the word _burn_ before being set aflame, and then screaming in dire pain for a few seconds as their flesh and muscle melted, and then nothing. Among her first victims were Gwen, Arthur and Merlin, which had no chance to get away, just like everyone else who came after them.

It all ended when she came across Uther Pendragon. Morgana **exploded**, instantaneously incinerating both herself and the King, and anybody else unlucky enough to be nearby. The entire castle and town was also set ablaze with blue fire, which quickly cut down everything in its path. Some began to scream and were quickly cut short as they were reduced to blackened skeletons, caught in the most intense part of the destruction.

* * *

As she used the Crystal of Neahtid again with tear-filled eyes, Morgause looked a bit further back into the past and found out that it was _Merlin_ who was responsible for everything that had happened, all because he had knocked her down a flight of stairs. She had always thought that she had made a mistake in not just killing him when she left him to his death with the Serkets, but now she knew for sure. It was a shame that he was already dead, for she wanted to make him suffer for what he had done to her sister.

Merlin had been a powerful sorcerer, and yet he had sided with those who hated magic and would have put him to death if they knew of his gifts. Along with herself and Morgana, nothing could have stopped them if they had joined together against the tyranny of Uther Pendragon, but he was instead a great traitor to his own kind.

Though Uther was dead and those of magic were finally avenged, the price had been far too high. Morgause would sooner have him returned to life if it meant her sister would come back also, in the form she had known and loved her. She had seen many terrifying sights in her lifetime, but none so as much as the _demon_ that had taken control of her sister, and hoped that it returned to Hell or whatever darkness it spawned from.

She was powerful and had been taught by some of the wisest of the Old Religion, and had great pride upon this fact, and would find _some_ way to undo what had been done even if it took her until the end of time.

Morgause knew of one thing for sure: If she ever discovered a way to re-live or travel to the past, she was going to _kill_ Merlin. Morgana had been much more important to her than getting vengeance against Uther Pendragon, and everything else came a distant second, which was a fact that she had discovered far too late.


End file.
